Keiko today was breaking everything down all the way down to basics. This meant that we started without even a shinai in ashi-sabaki and then we worked our way up to fumikomi and then striking small but still in a full arc without fumikomi, just suriashi all for nearly if not over an hour before men-tsuke and even then really relaxed waza, “Hi, how are you” rather than the downcrushing tendency we all have with overstriking men.

Waza included kote-ojigaeshi-men (take your time), kote-men (pause), men-suriage-men (point up, not lift up). Keiko itself was pretty great, with me up against sensei and scoring some nice kote and even a men or two. Felt relaxed but was told I still use too much forearm power.

So today was just what I needed after my discouragement Thursday and skipping Saturday. The Sensei who used to run all Sunday classes finally returned after a long absence spent at one of our sister dojos. And this meant that we had the old condensed Sunday routine from before, which goes something like this: (ashi-sabaki) ayumi-ashix2, okuri-ashix2, ayumi-ashi fasterx2, okuri-ashi fasterx2, back-and-forthx2, back-and-forth plus men, back-and-forth plus kote-men; (kihon without men) menx3×2, kote-menx3×2, hiki-menx3×2; (men-o-tsuke) kirikaeshi, suri-ashi menx3, tobi-komi menx3, kihon menx3, sashi-menx3, kihon kote-menx3, small kote-menx3, omote-harai-menx3, ura-harai-menx3, tsukix3 (optional), hiki-menx3; (without bogu go off to the side) waza-practice on the blocksx2 each: otagae-ni-menx2, debana-kotex2, men-nuki-dox2, ai-kote-menx2, kote-kaeshi-menx2, kote-nuki-menx2, otagae-ni-hiki-menx2; karari-geiko: menx2, kote-menx2, men-or-kote-menx1. Sonkyo. Whew.

In keiko with said sensei, I felt for the first time that he was taking seriously, though by that I just mean that he kept the pressure on, rather than going straight through after a point, walking to the other side casually, turning around and resetting deliberately–it felt more like five minutes of continuous practice, though this does not mean that I scored a solitary solid point. With Sensei I scored a few clean shikake-waza points, but was still too tense, and he cautioned me afterward that bad tenouchi leads to painful strikes for motodachi. I’m torn because part of me wants to work on my hikiwaza, but the rest of me knows that it’s really more important to work on basics, basics, basics, and there are plenty of other things (such as simple tenouchi, zanshin) which would improve my overall far more.

Also, in trying to keep my back straighter, both in kakari-geiko and again senseis, I find that my form improves, but I tend to be a lot more tired and sore, which can only mean I should be more consistently upright.